Telecommunications networks may provide a number of services, such as plain old telephone service (“POTS”), digital subscriber line (“DSL”), and cable. A telecommunications network may be divided into a plurality of geographic areas known as turfs. Maintenance of the telecommunications network generally involves a proper reallocation of technicians across the turfs such that work orders can be timely filled. For example, when one turf experiences a high volume of work orders, it may be desirable to reallocate available technicians from another, preferably nearby, turf with a low volume of work orders to help with the high volume. The reallocation of technicians may be based on a number of factors, such as the location, skills, schedule, and availability of the technicians, as well as the priority of the work orders and the amount of time to complete the work orders.
Prior to a work shift, a technician is generally assigned a work list (i.e., a work schedule), which contains the job information for a number of jobs to be completed during the work shift. When the technician expects to be unavailable to work (e.g., if the technician plans to take a vacation), the technician may inform scheduling personnel responsible for creating the work list. The work list in the Integrated Dispatch System (“IDS”) may be created manually by personnel or automatically via an automated process. After the technician informs the scheduling personnel, the scheduling personnel should update a computer responsible for creating the work list for the technician such that the computer does not create the work list for the technician while the technician is unavailable. Potential difficulties may arise, however, if the scheduling personnel does not properly update the computer or if the technician does not properly inform the scheduling personnel. In particular, a work list allocating a number of jobs to the technician may still be created even though the technician is unavailable. The jobs allocated to the technician may be uncompleted unless a load balance supervisor (“LBS”) or other personnel responsible for dispatching technicians reschedules the jobs to other technicians. The LBS may not be aware that the technician is unavailable, however, until a significant amount of time passes in the technician's scheduled work shift. As such, a number of appointments for jobs may be missed, and too much time may pass to reschedule the missed jobs.
The opposite scenario to the one described above may also occur and cause its own difficulties. As briefly described above, when a technician is not scheduled for a work shift, the technician may not be assigned a work list. However, if a technician still arrives to work and requests to be dispatched to jobs, a significant amount of unproductive time may be wasted by the technician waiting for a next job to be assigned.